Parliamentary Council endorses President's nominees for superior court vacancies

The Parliamentary Council has cleared the names for six vacancies in the Supreme Court and the post of President of the Court of Appeal as nominated by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

The Council has already forwarded the names to the President, the appointing authority in terms of the 20th Amendment. The Council is only empowered to forward its “observations” if there are any over the names suggested by the President to the top slots.

When the Council met on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena to scrutinise the names which were suggested by the President, all the names were cleared without any objections raised.

Earlier this week, President Rajapaksa nominated Court of Appeal President Justice A.M. D. Nawaz and Justices Kumudini Wickremesinghe, Shiran Gunaratne, Achala Wengappuli, Mahinda Samayawardana and Janak de Silva as justices to the Supreme Court to fill new vacancies created under the 20th Amendment. Justice Ar j una Obeyesekere was also nominated as the President of the Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, the Judicial Services Commission is due to call for application for vacancies arising in lower courts.

The Parliamentary Council came into existence replacing the earlier wide-powered Constitutional Council. The five- member Parliamentary Council consists of the Speaker, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and Minister Douglas Devananda and Parliamentarian Kabir Hashim as the nominees of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.